Showing posts with label Herman J. Mankiewicz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herman J. Mankiewicz. Show all posts

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Winning Oscars buying selling auctioning Academy Awards

Auctioning Academy Awards, Buying and Selling
Those who collect them
Those who buy them just to return them to
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In December 2002, Steven Spielberg paid $180,000, not including fees and
Steven Spielberg
Autographed Oscar
8x10 Color Photo
taxes, for Bette Davis' Best Actress Oscar for the 1935 movie Dangerous. It was auctioned by Sotheby's in New York. 

In 2001, Spielberg had paid $578,000 for the Oscar Davis won for the 1938 movie Jezebel. The director/producer is one of a handful of people who are buying up Oscars and giving them to the academy.

In 1996 Clark Gable's Best Actor Oscar for 1934's It Happened One Night sold for $607,500.

Clark Gable's son and only heir, John Clark Gable put the Oscar up for auction at Christie’s in Los Angeles. 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had sued to keep Gable's Oscar off the auction block. Both Christie's and Gable's son were defendants in the case.

Apparently the academy claimed that, two years before his death in 1960, Gable signed a standard contract giving it first right to buy the statuette if it was ever sold. Christie's claimed the signature on the agreement was a fake.


In 1955 a magazine claimed that Gable had given the Oscar to the son of director, Walter Lang. Lang was married to former actress, Madalynne Field. Also known as Fieldsie, she was private secretary and good friend to Carole Lombard. Lang and Field met when he directed Lombard in the 1936 film, Love Before Breakfast.

1955 Clipping claiming Clark Gable had given his Oscar
to the son of director Walter Lang
  Turns out that this was, to my knowledge at least, the first Oscar purchased by Mr. Spielberg and returned to the academy.

"I could think of no better sanctuary for Gable's only Oscar than the Motion Picture Academy," Spielberg said in a statement. "The Oscar statuette is the most personal recognition of good work our industry can ever bestow, and it strikes me as a sad sign of our times that this icon could be confused with a commercial treasure."





September 2001, George Stoll's Best Score Oscar (received for the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh) was offered in an estate sale at the Butterfields auction house. The award brought seven times more than expected at $156,875.  The actor Kevin Spacey was revealed as the anonymous buyer. He subsequently returned it to the Academy. 

In 1992 Harold Russell sold his Best Supporting Actor statuette from The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) for $50,000. Not a professional actor, he was able to portray a version of his own story in the film, a World War II veteran who comes home a double amputee. After making the film, he got a business degree from Boston University and became an ardent advocate for the disabled.

Mr. Russell said he needed the money to pay his wife's medical bills and other expenses. He's quoted as saying, "I don't know why anybody would be critical. My wife's health is much more important than sentimental reasons. The movie will be here, even if Oscar isn't." 

Russell received an honorary Oscar as well for being an inspiration for disabled war veterans throughout the U.S. "To Harold Russell for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in "he Best Years of Our Lives." This made him the first (and only) actor to receive two Oscars for the same role.

It's reported that agent Lew Wasserman bought Russell's statuette and donated it back to the academy.

Take the case of the Joseph Schildkraut Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for The Life of Emile Zola, 1937. His Oscar was in the early days when supporting actor awards were still plaques. In a 2007 auction it failed to reach its minimum bid and didn't sell. But in 2013 the Oscar sold for $92,866.

This is the only instance I found where a performer or craftsperson sold his or her own award. There are instances where people have donated or said to have gifted them.




In December 1993, the Oscar won by actress Vivien Leigh for her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind was sold at auction for $510,000. The award was sold by her family. Ms. Leigh also won a Best Actress Oscar at the 24th Annual Academy Awards in 1952 for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

In 1970 Let It Be won the Oscar for Best Original Score presented to The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr). It's from their documentary film of the same name. 

In 1976, John Lennon donated his Oscar statuette to the Southbury Training School in Southbuy, CT for "a celebrity auction for retarded people," and it brought $600. It was sold again at a 1992 auction bringing $110,000 from an anonymous Beatles fan.

The best actress Oscar won by Joan Crawford for her role in classic film Mildred Pierce sold at auction on two occasions. Ms. Crawford's daughter Cathy sold it in 1993 at a Christie's auction for $68,500 to an anonymous bidder. In September 2012 it was sold at auction again for $426,732.


8 Academy Award Winners Signed 8x10 Photo (PSA/DNA) LOA- Audrey Hepburn, Denzel Washington, James Stewart, Gene Kelly, Sally Field +


Magician David Copperfield spent close to a quarter of a million dollars for Michael Curtiz's Best Director Oscar for Casablanca (1943). Copperfield was unsuccessful in securing Welles' Oscar as co-writer for Citizen Kane.

Michael Jackson paid $1.54m at auction in 1999 for the Best Film (then called Outstanding Production) Oscar awarded to producer David O Selznick for Gone With The Wind.

In February 2012 a record 15 Oscars were auctioned off just days after the Academy Awards took place. The statuettes were all awarded prior to 1950.

"The academy, its members and the many film artists and craftspeople who've won Academy Awards believe strongly that Oscars should be won, not purchased," said academy spokeswoman Janet Hill in a statement. "Unfortunately, because our winners agreement wasn't instituted until 1950, we don't have any legal means of stopping the commoditization of these particular statuettes."





Of the 15 auctioned together, the Oscar bringing in the most money was $588,000 for Citizen Kane Best Original Screenplay Oscar received by Herman J. Mankiewicz which he shared with Orson Welles as co-writer.  

"Also up for grabs were How Green Was My Valley's best picture Oscar from 1941, which went for $274,520 and Cavalcade's 1933 gong for the same prize, which brought in $332,165. 

"The oldest of the Oscars on sale, Skippy's best picture statuette from 1931, fetched $301,973. 

"Two acting statuettes, Ronald Colman's 1947 best actor prize for A Double Life and Charles Coburn's historic supporting award for 1943's The More The Merrier – the first year that supporting actors were honored with their own prize – took $206,250 and $170,459 respectively."
-- The Guardian February 2012




Jaws was nominated for Best Picture. Watching the nomination, Spielberg is disappointed that he's not nominated for Best Directing. "The shark was an actress," he jokes, as if the shark might be eligible for that category. 

They note that Jaws is one of the few films to be nominated for Best Picture but not in other major categories of directing, acting, or writing. The 48th Academy Awards were presented March 29, 1976.

That year the winner was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz. Other fantastic films in the category of Best Picture were Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville and Barry Lyndon.

Some may remember the old Jack Benny radio show, It's still available in MP3 podcast form. Ronald Colman was one of Jack Benny's neighbors. A series of shows dealt with Benny's borrowing Colman's Oscar.

In 2002 Ronald Colman's Academy Award sold for $174,500. Also auctioned was a special brass Oscar box. It was inscribed, "To Ronald Colman/With The Affection and Esteem/Of His Fellow Actors/The Masquers/First Annual Dinner to the Winner/April 28, 1948," per Christie's Auction description of a Colman estate sale in 2002.

FYI: In the early years of the academy winners in the supporting acting categories were awarded plaques. After 1943, winners in the supporting acting categories were awarded Oscar statuettes similar to those awarded to winners in all other categories, including the leading acting categories. Have any of these fifteen Oscars been donated back to the academy? I haven't heard yet.

Mr. Copperfield is among a large group of fans who believe that the statuettes are to be respected as important pieces of movie memorabilia by collectors. This controversy is unlikely to end as the heirs of those who won the awards before 1950 are still legally allowed to do what they will with the statuettes. 


How do you feel about owning an Oscar or an Emmy Award as a piece of movie memorabilia like one of James Bond's cars or Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz?

"Since the Academy Awards were first presented in 1929, there have been famous instances of lost or stolen Oscars. Margaret O'Brien's 1945 award for outstanding child acting disappeared from her home, only to be found 50 years later at a Pasadena flea market and returned to her."

The academy is in the process of building a museum. Some winners have their awards on display where fans can see them. I read that you can view movie memorabilia at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery Geyserville, CA, and that includes Mr. Coppola's Academy Awards. Similarly if you visit the Raymond Burr Vineyards in Healdsburg, CA you may be able to see his Emmy Awards.





In 1950, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences passed a rule prohibiting Academy Award winners or their heirs from selling a statue without first offering it back to the Academy for a price of $1.

"Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00. This provision shall apply also to the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who may acquire a statuette by gift or bequest."
-- excerpted from the Academy Rules and Regulations


Related Pages of Interest

The Travels of Orson Welles' Academy Award for Citizen Kane

Entertainment Memorabilia Auctioning, Collecting: Recent; Updates

Film characters with prosthetic hands: Character and Disability in film
Clark Gable marries Kay Williams July 1955

Carole Lombard and William Powell; mentions Lombard's secretary Fieldsie, Madalynne Field

Sources:

Los Angeles Times
New York Times
New York Daily News
The Victoria Advocate
NateSanders.com
Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009

All information is researched and deemed accurate. Please send corrections and updates if you have them with sources.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Travels of Orson Welles Academy Award

Orson Welles 8x10 Original Prints
Directing
Hide and Go Oscar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began handing out their Oscars in 1928. In 1942 Welles won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Citizen Kane, an award shared with co-writer, Herman J. Mankiewicz. 
  • This page offers a timeline of the journey of Welles' Oscar, the most that we know
  • Also there are a couple of videos including a Citizen Kane documentary that is very good
In 1950, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences passed a rule prohibiting Academy Award winners or their heirs from selling a statue without first offering it back to the Academy for a price of $1.

"Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00. This provision shall apply also to the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who may acquire a statuette by gift or bequest."

-- excerpted from the Academy Rules and Regulations

There are a lot of pre-1950 Oscars out there that have been sold and this includes Orson Welles' 1942 Academy Award.

The value of one of these awards has direct correlation to the film and personality connected with it. When you're talking about Orson Welles and Citizen Kane you're talking about legend.

The journey of Mr. Welles' Oscar, the statuette itself, has been interesting. The award weighs 7 pounds, 5 ounces and comes to a total height of 12" tall. Welles won the award when he was 25 years old.

In 1971, he received a second Honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievement.

At some point the actor/director said he'd lost the Citizen Kane Oscar.  This is what his family believed. "...For years it had gone missing and the Academy issued a replacement to Beatrice Welles, Orson's youngest daughter and sole heir." -- Nate D. Sanders Auctions


Citizen Kane, Orson Welles Oscar Movie Poster Display

In 1994 cinematographer, Gary Graver, tried to sell it. He claimed that Welles had given him the award as a gift. 

He talks about the experience in his book, Making Movies with Orson Welles.

"Completely out of the blue, Orson handed me the Oscar.
 

'Here,' he said. 'Keep this Gary. You take it. I want you to have it.'
I was of course absolutely stunned. This was the Oscar for Citizen Kane, the greatest film ever made! I told him I couldn't possibly take it but Orson wouldn't hear of it.

'No, no,' he said. 'I want you to have it.'

"And that was that. What a gift! Can you imagine? And I ultimately owned that statuette for about twenty years. Then in 1994 one of Orson's daughters learned that the Oscar was in my possession, so she filed a suit in California Supreme Court. 

"...The assertion her lawyers made was that the Oscar was not actually a gift but something Orson had handed me for safekeeping."

It was also said that the Oscar may have been give as a form of payment. It was displayed at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003.


 
Orson Welles was interviewed about Citizen Kane, William Randolph Hearst and more.

His daughter Beatrice sued and won custody of the statuette.  Then the Academy sued her when she tried to auction it in 2003. 

After a legal battle, she won the right to dispense of the Oscar and sold it to a nonprofit that tried unsuccessfully to sell it auction. She sold it to a California nonprofit called the Dax Foundation, who in turn tried unsuccessfully to auction it in 2007.

Sotheby’s also was unsuccessful when it tried to auction the award in 2007 but failed to as it failed to meet the reserve price.





Finally in December 2011 the Oscar Orson Welles won for the screenplay of Citizen Kane sold at auction for $861,542 to an undisclosed bidder, Nate D. Sanders Auctions reported.

Here is the description the Oscar had before it sold:

James Cameron
Holds Two Academy Awards
Oscars Titanic Original
35Mm Transparency
"Two engraved plaques are placed on opposite sides of the Belgian marble pedestal. One reads, 'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences / First Award / 1941.' The other reads, 'Academy First Award To Orson Welles / For Writing / Original Screenplay of Citizen Kane.'

"The figure and film reel, composed of gold-plated britannium measuring 10.5" tall, top the pedestal, bringing the total height to 12". The pedestal's diameter measures 5.25". The award weighs 7 pounds, 5 ounces.

"Some tarnishing to statue, primarily to the leg area of the figure. The green felt backing under the pedestal is worn away around the edge. Overall in very good condition."

 
David Copperfield, who was outbid in the auction, said he admires Welles not only for his cinematic successes, but because he, too, was a magician. Welles hosted Copperfield's first television special.

Copperfield told the auction house that he wanted the Oscar because "Orson Welles was not only a magician of the cinema but also a performing magician himself." The magician also has history with Welles, The filmmaker hosted Copperfield's first TV special, and Copperfield already owns many props from Citizen Kane. (Hollywood Reporter)

Earlier in 2011, an Oscar won by by Nathan Levinson for best sound recording for the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy was sold in Texas for $89,625. 




The auction house said only a handful of Academy Awards have sold for nearly a million dollars. Michael Jackson famously paid $1.54 million in 1999 for the best picture Oscar awarded to David O. Selznick for Gone With The Wind.

Other awards can be found on auction regularly. Katharine Hepburn's Kennedy Center Honors ribbons and the BAFTA she earned for her performance in On Golden Pond were recently won at auction.

Among the awards available in a February 2014 auction at Nate B. Sanders Auctions is a Presidential Medal of Freedom With Distinction Awarded to Robert McNamara.






There are some fine documentaries about Citizen Kane.

There is some confusion about other nationally known industry awards such as the Emmy given by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. We've seen them block some sales of Emmys; Estelle Getty's Emmy Award was being sold on eBay in 2009. The sale of the Emmy was halted. But some Emmy sales have proceeded. 


Rita Hayworth has her hair dyed and cut 8x10" Photo

Related Pages of Interest:


Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition) See what all the fuss is about -- or enjoy it all over again. You can stream it onto your TV, computer, tablet, etc.

Orson Welles and the Oscars for Citizen Kane, Not so Terrific

Buying, Selling, Auctioning off Academy Awards  The Oscar Herman J. Mankiewicz won for co-writing Citizen Kane with Welles was auctioned off in 2012.

Collecting, Auctioning Entertainment Memorabilia

Nate B Sanders Auction House Orson Welles Oscar Consignment

Some information, not cited above from CNN, Reuters, CBS News, New York Daily News

Orson Welles and the Oscars for Citizen Kane not so Terrific

Orson Welles, Citizen Kane and the Oscars


Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane
24X36 Poster Print
Citizen Kane has been called the best film of all time. A 25-year-old Orson Welles co-wrote the screenplay with Herman Mankiewicz. He directed and produced the movie. He also starred as Charles Foster Kane.

His radio drama, The War of the Worlds had been a sensation just a couple years earlier. He was young but now unknown and not a real newcomer.
 
Some critics boldly gave Citizen Kane the praise that it deserved. It was unlike anything they had ever seen before. The story hit too close to home for one of the most powerful men in the country, newspaper mogul, William Randolph Hearst.

In January of 1941, Only a few days after the screening, Hearst sent the word out to all his publications not to run advertisements for the film.

He didn't like how the movie appeared to be portraying not only him, but especially a character who paralleled his mistress, Marion Davies. Major theater chains refused to carry Citizen Kane. It was a flop.

Hearst began a campaign to discredit Welles and a smear campaign against him. His papers called Welles a Communist and questioned willingness to fight for his country. It didn't help that Welles himself, was a Hollywood outsider.




Some people must have been pretty mad, pretty influential and pretty frightened of this film. Movie industry friends of the publisher circuitously made monetary offers to destroy the negative and all prints of Citizen Kane.  
-- What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting by Marc Norman; Raising Kane by Pauline Kael


27 x 40 Citizen Kane Movie Poster
Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane
Bruce Headlam, Media Desk Editor at The New York Times has
a large version of this poster on the wall of his office

Page One: Inside The New York Times is an award winning 2011 documentary about the iconic newspaper and newspapers in the digital age. You'll see this huge film poster on his office wall. 

Also featured in the documentary with Bruce Headlam are journalists David Carr, Richard Perez-Pena, Tim Arango, Bill Keller and Brian Stelter.  At the time it was made, Bill Keller was Executive Editor. Since then, they had female Executive Editor Jill Abramson, and now the paper's first African American Executive Editor Dean Baquet has been in place since 2014.

1942 the 14th Academy Awards: Citizen Kane had been nominated for nine awards. Despite it all, some expected the film to sweep the Oscars. The movie lost in every category except one. Welles won the shared the award for best screenplay with Herman Mankiewicz.

Mankiewicz, expecting the worst, had stayed home and listened to the Oscars on the radio. In one interview, Welles said of Mankiewicz, "Everything concerning Rosebud belongs to him."

Welles wrote a letter to his co-winner:
"Dear Mankie, Here's what I wanted to wire you after the Academy dinner,
'You can kiss my half.'
Citizen Kane
Orson Welles Movie Poster

It's Terrific!
I dare to send it through the mails only now I find it possible to enclose a ready made retort. I don't presume to write your jokes for you, but you ought to like this:
'Dear Orson: You don't know your half from a hole in the ground.' Affectionately, Orson."

"It was almost an insult. The Academy Awards are notoriously influenced by sentiment. Welles was the outsider, and not a humble one, either on whom sanction could be generously bestowed.


"Envy, jealousy fear whatever - the Hollywood majority just didn't like him. In every category the award went to one of their own. (Even best screenplay was no doubt more a gesture to old-time pro Mankiewicz than an award to Welles) ....

"Best actor went to an old favorite, Gary Cooper for Howard Hawks's Sergeant York. I'd (pb) be the last to say these pictures were without merit. Ford and Hawks being two of my favorite directors, they were certainly at the forefront of the films of that year. But Kane was the film of the decade.

"The most telling Oscar was for music. Bernard Hermann was nominated twice that year -- for Kane and for All That Money Can Buy (another RKO release) and the Academy gave him the award for All That Money Can Buy.

"'My only award in my entire career in films from America is for Kane as a writer, you know. Toland didn't even get it as a cameraman.... They hissed every time our names were mentioned at the Academy awards that year.

"'Poor Toland had to wait for two years until he made How Green was my valley to get back into the good graces of everybody.'"

-- Orson Welles: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers) by Mark W. Estrin (Ed.), from an interview Welles gave to director, Peter Bogdanovich.This is a great book.

Gregg Toland had been up for Best Black-and-White Cinematography and, particularly in hindsight it's amazing that he didn't win. It's amazing that many of his collaborators didn't win. Robert Wise, for Film Editing, is another example. There was no make-up award in those days.

Similar to the situation with Cary Grant, I see different reasons why Welles was not accepted in Hollywood at the time. His apparently not wanting to be a part of the in-crowd was certainly a part of it.






I read quotes from the nominees themselves that the audience hissed at the mention of Welles' name and at the name of the film. At an event like the Academy Awards, that's really sad. I read online that the audience booed It's been said that Robert Wise said it, but I've yet to find a quote from him or anyone who was there saying they heard booing.

At the risk of losing readers, I found that the Academy Awards page has audio files of some of the nominations being read that year. This includes Best Picture and Best Actor. See if you can hear hissing, booing or rumbling. This is when they were still at a dinner banquet.

Jimmy Stewart presents the Best Actor Award to Gary Cooper and he is not surprisingly very nice and cordial to all who are nominated and sounds happy about the winner. Who doesn't love Jimmy Stewart. :)

David O. Selznick presents the Best Picture to Darryl F. Zanuck for How Green Was My Valley. He says Welles is "that talented newcomer."

I think Mr. Mankiewicz said he could hear hissing over the radio. He heard the entire broadcast.


Marion Davies vintage movie images Wristlet Clutch
Marion Davies vintage movie images Wristlet Clutch Choose size/style
by Jakestuff
See other Marion davies Bagettes Bags at zazzle

At the 71st Academy Awards in 1999 director  Elia Kazan received a controversial Honorary Oscar. Kazan directed classics such as On the Waterfront. In the 1950s, he was said to have been a 'friendly witness,' naming names before the House Un-American Activities Committee which investigated Communist influences in Hollywood. 1999 was the only time I can recall seeing a segment of the audience have a negative response to someone on stage.


Orson Welles photo
The most powerful demonstration of their feeling was to sit on their hands instead of clapping. Not sure, even though there was only radio in the 40s, what they would have to gain by that kind of behavior. We see some booing if a winner gives a political speech when a thank you speech is expected.



His daughter, Chris Welles talked on TCM about her father's making The Lady from Shanghai with Rita Hayworth.


At the 43rd Academy Awards in 1971, Orson Welles is presented with an Honorary Oscar. this is the year after Cary Grant received his Honorary Oscar. John Huston presenting an Honorary Oscar to Orson Welles for superlative artistry and versatility in the creation of motion pictures.



In his biography and on other occasions, Welles tells that on the night of the Oscars while accepting the award he "pretended to be abroad."

"I didn't go because I feel like  a damn fool at those things. I feel foolish, really foolish. I didn't go not because i didn't have respect for it,after all all the people in the industry vote you something, you should show your appreciation. So I did, I made a piece of film and said that I was in Spain and I thanked them. ... John (Houston) introduced me and said at the end, 'Good night Orson wherever you are!' I was in Laurel Canyon!"
-- Orson Welles: A Biography by Barbara Leaming

1971 is also notable since it's the year that George C. Scott won for his role in Patton. Scott refused both the nomination and the Oscar that he won. The film's producer went up to accept the award. Scott had declined nominations in the past.

Scott had said, "The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don't want any part of it. Scott's Oscar is said to be or at least was at some time displayed at the Virginia Military Institute museum in Lexington where generations of Pattons attended.

"George C. Scott declined his nomination and the award, but Academy President Daniel Taradash noted that, '…a person responsible for the achievement cannot decline the nomination after it is voted. Actually, Mr. Scott is not involved. It is his performance in Patton which is involved.'"
-- from the Academy Awards web site


In case you're wondering... It was the 45th Academy Awards, March 27, 1973 when Marlon Brando declined his Best Actor Oscar sending Sacheen Littlefeather onstage instead. On the eve of the 1972 Oscars, Brando announced that he would boycott the ceremony.


Part two of this post: The journey of the Oscar itself follows: The story, some think well.... is terrific!

In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles by Chris Welles Feder

Entertainment memorabilia- Collect Share Research Auction Bidding on early Academy Awards

Cary Grant and the Oscars, the 1940s and more


Marlene Dietrich documentary, Maximillian Schell :This 1984 documentary was an Academy Award nominee itself. It won The National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics awards for Best Documentary. Dietrich made Touch of Evil with Orson Welles, and she made no secret of how she felt about the Oscars. This documentary is fascinating. It can be streamed or purchased on DVD.


2013 was the 75th anniversary of Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast. It was also the 70th anniversary of his wedding to legendary actress Rita Hayworth. There are celebrations of both on this fun page of alien shirts. You can listen to the broadcast.

*About links: Please note that links will open in separate windows for your convenience. You can close them and go back to this blog article in its original window.  
* If you hold copyright to any photos and would like them removed, please contact me and I'd be happy to remove them.

Friday, January 31, 2014

Bringing up Cary Grant and the Oscars

None But Lonely Heart Cary Grant
1944 Studio Still
Archie and Old Oscar : Four Decades at The Movies

Cary Grant made 72 films from 1932 to 1966. In his career he was nominated for two competitive Academy Awards, both Best Actor.

First for Penny Serenade and then None But the Lonely Heart 1941 and 1944 respectively. He didn't win either. 

The reasons why he never won and wasn't nominated more often are debatable.

In 1970, he received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar "for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting." This was a quarter century after his last nomination and it was after he'd retired from the business.

His specialties, probably the films for which we best remember him, were forms of romantic comedy (screwball comedies and other types of comedy) and Hitchcock-type thrillers.  

Holiday, 1938 doesn't get the attention that it deserves. Directors hired him because he could bring certain qualities to any role.

All of the nominated performances and films are very good and recommended. To say someone should have been nominated has nothing to do with the talented people who actually were nominated. Nowhere is it suggested that he deserved an award more than anyone else.

I think he had some great performances that should have been recognized, nominated at least. Maybe there was some snubbing going on. I looked back at the history to see how it went. All the movies that were nominated and the movies that won are terrific.

Should he have been nominated more often? Should he have received an Oscar? If he was snubbed why might that be? Instead of saying yes or no, saying the obvious that I'm a fan and like his films, I looked at some history to find out. This turned me onto more films across the board and introduced me to more info about the film world. All good.

Types of Films. Some say it's because of the types of films he made. Much of
Mae West Cary Grant
Magazine Photo clipping
8x10 1page
his career Cary Grant made films that were hits with not the type that the Academy is apt to award. They weren't necessarily favored by critics. 

He focused on the fans, the box office. He never made movies that were, as some say, Oscar bait.

To this day, comedies, though arguably more difficult than drama, are rarely honored with Academy Awards. 

When the first Academy Awards were handed out in 1929, Charlie Chaplin received a special award "for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing." This was for his 1928 film The Circus. At that time the first president of the Academy was friend Douglas Fairbanks. **

While popular and admired, Alfred Hitchcock's films were rarely recognized by the Academy. 

When Mae West said her famous line, "Why don't you come up and see me?" It was said to a young Cary Grant in She Done Him Wrong, 1932.

When his films were being made. The period during which he was making movies probably played a part. During World War Two were they more likely to award an uplifting, patriotic movie and performance? In the 1940s, particularly during the Second World War, films with patriotic and/or homespun values  were popular.
Cary Grant glossy photo

He was politically incorrect. He certainly never seemed to campaign for an Oscar. In 1951, he starred in a film, People Will Talk, that appeared to deal with McCarthy-style hearings at the same time that they were actually going on. 

When people scorned Ingrid Bergman for having an affair and having children with another man, he stood by her. 

She left the country and lived in Italy for almost a decade thanks to the scandal. When she won Best Actress for Anastasia, Cary Grant accepted the Oscar for her in 1957.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. I have a friend who's a Tom Cruise fan. She insists that Cary Grant, 'like Cruise,' is not taken seriously by the Academy because of his appearance. Tall, dark and handsome vs short, gold and shiny? 

A high percentage of Hollywood stars appear to be more attractive than not, particularly with the help of make up, hair, lighting and costume professionals, etc. I'm not altogether sure about this one. 

"Actors as a group are the world's biggest worriers. A lot of them worry about Cary Grant. One star about the same age as Cary recently complained: 'How does he do it? He's handsomer than when he was Mae West's leading man. I can't make an appearance without my make-up man along -- and this guy doesn't even use makeup on camera.' .... 

"Someone called Rock Hudson a young Cary Grant. Commented Rock, 'How can there be a young Cary Grant? The real one is ageless.'" 
-- Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Jun 28, 1964

He always played himself, He made it look too easy, He always played the same character. Some people say he never won because he was always playing himself in movies. I guess those people knew him personally.


"Grant’s attention to detail became legendary. He practiced hours to discover the funniest, most effective way to light a cigarette, fasten a cuff link, straighten his tie. No motion was too insignificant. 'I used to stand in the back of movie houses and listen to the audience. If they laughed at a certain piece of business I never forgot it.'"
-- The Saturday Evening Post - March 1978


"I wonder if audiences realize what is the hardest thing in the world. It is for every actor to be what you call natural. Whenever I hear people say that Crosby or Gary Cooper just play themselves in pictures, I have to laugh. There is no such thing. Remember how self-conscious most people become when they have their picture taken or someone breaks out an amateur movie camera."
-- Films and Filming - July 1961 What it Means to be a Star by Cary Grant.

This quote makes me think of our present-day Reality Shows and all the craft-work that goes into making people come off as so-called realistic.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was still pretty new in 1932 when Grant made his first film. The first awards were given out in May of 1929. They honored movies released August 1, 1927 – August 1, 1928.

The idea for the Academy began with the heads of the major film studios discussing the creation of an organized group for the film industry and a banquet. It was established that membership be invitation only and open to those in the business in certain branches of the industry as it is today. Categories and processes have morphed over the years but it's similar.  This is a very rough explanation of course.

Some say he didn't receive more nominations because of his way of doing business. He was a businessman as well as being an actor. Some of his tactics, methods to get himself and his films a good deal, rubbed people the wrong way. He was very specific in his contracts. But this suggestion doesn't seem realistic. He wasn't that unique. Then and now, ego, salary requests are all part of the game. Is the performer worth it? Just like any other business.


"Ain’t nobody got so much money that they don’t want all the money that’s coming to them."
-- Dolly Parton in The New York Times, John Bowe, speaking about music royalties. She's also said this in television interviews.



Going independent. Some say Grant was snubbed because he was the first major Hollywood star to go independent. By not renewing his studio contract, he left the studio system, which almost completely controlled what an actor could or could not do. [I sometimes saw it said that he was the first major Hollywood talking pictures star to leave the studio system.]

In this way, Grant was able to control every aspect of his career. This was dangerous because he ran the risk of not working since no particular studio had an interest in his career long term.

He's a rebel and he'll never ever be any good...
He's a rebel 'cause he never ever does what he should
But just because he doesn't do what everybody else does..... (Was he one of the original industry rebels? For some reason The Crystals' song came to mind. :) 







He also resigned from the Academy apparently garnering long-term ire of a lot of people in the industry. Rightly or wrongly, they took that personally and didn't forget it. So he was an outsider. But he still knew the value that an Oscar would bring to both his own career and to the overall takings any film that won.


"Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member." Groucho Marx sent this in a telegram to the Friar's Club of Beverly Hills to which he belonged; Groucho and Me (1959)

I can see why he was a hero for present-day nonconformists such as Bill Murray and John Cleese who'd go on to shake things up in the industry years later. Cleese even named his character in A Fish Called Wanda, Archie Leach after Cary Grant's birth name.
 
I have favorite Cary Grant films. I love the comedies and the Hitchcock movies. There are still some of his films that I haven't seen so it's fun to see those. I get a kick out of seeing his early films.

Grant appeared as a leading man opposite Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus (1932). It's a good very early Grant film. If you want to see how far the actor evolved watch that movie and others from this era.
Dietrich is wonderful in it and how often do you get to see a voodoo gorilla striptease?

You'll get to see the raw talent (and the youthful good looks). You can see why he feared becoming just an arm ornament for top female stars.


Philadelphia Story Photograph Master Print High Quality
The Philadelphia Story was a big hit in 1940. It got six Oscar nominations including Outstanding Production aka Best Picture. 

Three performances were called out for acting nominations: Best Actor: James Stewart; Best Actress: Katharine Hepburn and Best Supporting Actress: Ruth Hussey. 

James Stewart won for Best Actor.

Stewart said very complementary things about working with Grant and about his performance in the film. Joseph L. Mankiewicz the movie's producer, wrote Cary Grant a letter to thank him. 

"Whatever success this picture is having ... is due in my opinion to you in far greater proportions than anyone has seen fit to shout about. .... Your presence as Dexter and particularly your sensitive and brilliant playing of the role, contribute what I consider to the backbone and basis of practically ever emotional value in the piece. I can think of no one who could have done as well or given as much."
Cary Grant
: A Class Apart by Graham McCann 


Richard Corliss, Time Magazine's film editor, suggested that Cary Grant was snubbed for an Oscar nomination in 1941. In a 2010 article Corliss wrote that Grant should've been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his work in the classic film, His Girl Friday. 


Penny Serenade Cary Grant Original studio Still

In 1941 two more of my personal favorites were released, very different roles for him: Penny Serenade, costarring with Irene Dunne and Suspicion with Joan Fontaine. 

He played a newspaperman, the father of an adopted daughter. The film, something of a tear-jerker, which could have been maudlin, is saved by the performances of Grant and Dunne. It was chosen by Cher as one of her favorites when she was a guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in 2013.The film also featured Beulah Bondi and Edgar Buchanan. 

Cary Grant's first Oscar nomination was for Penny Serenade. The big night was February 26, 1942, The 14th Academy Awards.


"I went to a sneak preview and got into the theater after dark and heard a couple behind me say, 'Oh, another Cary Grant, Irene Dunne comedy.' Little did they know. By the half way point both were blubbering. Oh, it was a four hankie affair. I have a miscarriage in Japan, Cary has to cry when the judge tries to take away our adopted girl, then she dies.

"His crying scene was so magnificent I said, 'Oh, he's going to win the Oscar.' And he nearly did. He was also great that year in Suspicion. But I told him he'd never win. He made everything seem spontaneous, so easy. But that is fine acting when people think you are playing yourself. I found comedy hardest, drama less so but what did I know? I never even got a nomination that year."
Irene Dunne; The Toronto Star interview with Jim Bawden

Other Best Actor nominees that year were Gary Cooper: Sergeant York, Orson Welles: Citizen Kane, Walter Huston: All That Money Can Buy and Robert Montgomery: Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Gary Cooper was not nominated for his role in the comedy, Ball of Fire but for the role as the World War I hero Sergeant York. Cooper won the Best Actor award that year.

Newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst and his defenders had been working to intimidate anyone connected with the film Citizen Kane and Orson Welles in particular. His papers had set out a smear campaign against him.

Welles was another Hollywood outsider. His negative comments about the industry served only to fuel the fire that Hearst was setting against him. The film received nine Academy Award nominations but it only won the Best Writing (Original Screenplay) Oscar. Welles shared the award for best screenplay with Herman Mankiewicz. I have a post about Welles' Oscar nomination and his Screenplay Oscar.



 A short film of the awards banquet, no sound. Supporting actor winners were still receiving plaques.

The nominees for Best Actress included sisters, Cary Grant's costar, Joan Fontaine in Suspicion and Olivia de Havilland: Hold Back the Dawn. Other nominees in this category were Bette Davis: The Little Foxes, Greer Garson: Blossoms in the Dust and  Barbara Stanwyck: Ball of Fire (with Gary Cooper).  Joan Fontaine won the award. It would be the only acting award ever received for any Alfred Hitchcock film.

Quite a bit has been written about a rivalry between Cary Grant and Gary Cooper. The two men were in the studio system in the thirties competing for roles which meant exposure, more and better parts in film. They were also competing for women. Beauties such as the actress/model Phyllis Brooks were linked to both of them. Competition at work, for money and ladies? Was it just a case of men playing Quien es mas macho?

Any information I found in a brief search was second or third hand or fragments of quotes out of context. Much of it could be apocryphal. Good news isn't interesting, and no news isn't news at all. An assumption is that there was and is competition in the industry between all the participants. Often when we see a film run on television a commentator will tell us the other actors who were also considered for the part, who turned down the role. It's interesting.

I liked his 1942 movie, Talk of the Town, which costarred Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman. It had seven Academy Award nominations including one for Outstanding Motion Picture. Unfortunately it didn't win any Oscars. All three stars turn in very good performances.


Cary Grant None but the Lonely Heart Movie ad Magazine Photo clipping

Grant's second and only other nomination was for his role in the 1944 film, None but the Lonely Heart. Both Charles Boyer, in Gaslight and Cary Grant were nominated for films where they were cast against type.

Grant plays a rougher character in this film, more serious than fans were used to seeing. He speaks with a Cockney accent which he rarely did in films. I think we see that (hear it) in Sylvia Scarlett and a little in Mr. Lucky where there's a fun bit about rhyming slang.

The film had three nominations total. Ethel Barrymore, who played his mother, won the Actress in a Supporting Role Academy Award.

It was more a critical success if not such a big box office hit. Reviewers for Time and Variety praised the film and his acting. The Hollywood Reporter called it "simply the finest thing he has ever done."


 

None But the Lonely Heart
costars  Ethel Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald, June Duprez, Jane Wyatt, George Coulouris and Dan Duryea.


Bosley Crowther in a 1944 New York Times review: "Such a sensitive and warmly revealing and poetically lovely film it is that one may feel wonder and amazement at seeing it on the screen.  

"Especially may one marvel at Cary Grant in the leading role and be entranced by the thoughtfulness of casting Ethel Barrymore as his excellent support." ..."Mr. Grant's performance as Ernie Mott, the 'tramp of the Universe'—the 'citizen of the Great Smoke' who was 'barmy as the muffin man'—is an exceptional characterization of bewilderment and arrogance ..."

Crowther's review ends with the comment, "It may possibly be that this picture will not be widely accepted just now, but we are sure that it will be remembered—and revived—long after many current favorites are forgotten."

Ingrid Bergman won her first Best Actress Oscar for her role opposite Boyer in Gaslight.  Bing Crosby won the Best Actor award for Going My Way. The film also won Best Picture that year.
 
"'One of the films that I think shows a successful bit of acting is None But the Lonely Heart,' he said. 'That's where I found a form that fitted me. I played a well-dressed, fairly sophisticated chap who is put into intolerable situations. It's a formula, and I used it often.'

"Other films he especially liked included North by Northwest, Charade, Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story.

"'I think Indiscreet and Notorious, both with Ingrid Bergman, are good. They hold up.'"
Redbook March 1987; This was one of Cary Grant's last interviews

In 1948 at the 20th Academy Awards, Sidney Sheldon won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay of 1947 for The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer. Sheldon went on to have more success writing books and television. The Bishop's Wife had been nominated for awards, including Best Picture, but hadn't won.


Indiscreet Cary Grant Ingrid Bergman
16X20 B&W
In 1946, Grant made the Alfred Hitchcock film Notorious with Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. It's one of my all time favorites. The film has one of the most erotic and memorable kissing scenes ever.

In a 2012 Vanity Fair interview, Sophia Loren talks about Cary Grant. He's in her book, Sophia: Living and Loving: Her Own Story. Grant proposed to her repeatedly when they were filming Houseboat. 

"When asked for one piece of advice Sophia would like to give to young actresses everywhere it's...

"'Learn how to kiss. Now they kiss in another way,' she said, 'like they are devouring each other.' She demonstrated. 'They should see how people like Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant kiss in Notorious. Do they eat each other's faces? No!'"

Another one of my favorites was People Will Talk, a Joseph L  Mankiewicz film from 1951. It is a love story but also a very political and ideological story.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz had won both Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards in the 22nd and 23rd Academy Awards consecutively. His film A Letter to Three Wives  came out in 1949, All About Eve was a hit in 1950.

Mr. Mankiewicz became the target of a McCarthy-style attack because he refused to sign a Loyalty Oath, an affidavit stating that members of the Screen Directors Guild were not members of the Communist Party. The Hollywood Blacklist is something that should be talked about and not forgotten so this kind of thing won't happen again.




His next film, People Will Talk, would star Cary Grant. As he wrote the screenplay and filming began, the events and fallout of the situation in his professional life played out behind the scenes. At the same time the witch hunts went on in the entire Hollywood community.

Reviewers and film historians say Grant is a stand-in for the director's taking a stand against McCarthyism in the guise of a doctor up on ethics charges. Grant  was the perfect choice all around for this role.

Mankiewicz has called the situation "a bewildering fascinating battle with Cecil DeMille about a compulsory loyalty oath for directors. ... Which meant that in order to direct a film in the United States of America you have to state that you were not, and had never been a member of the Communist party."
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Interviews

People Will Talk was one of the first, if not the first film that not only deals with (if candy coated) the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings but is partly an anti-McCarthy story.

Grant's costar is Jeanne Crain. Supporting performers are Hume Cronyn, Finlay Currie, Walter Slezak,Sidney Blackmer and Margaret Hamilton.

This was just one of the topics that the director/screenwriter successfully incorporated into the film and got past the censors. It was a time when they say Katharine Hepburn was instructed to keep her eyes open when Cary Grant kissed her at the end of The Philadelphia Story, even though the two were supposed to be remarried at that point. Maybe they worried that if she closed her eyes she might be transported and go into some kind of romantic fit?

It's helpful to watch the movie keeping in mind a sense of what was going on at the time with the McCarthy hearings,
People Will Talk Cary Grant Studio Still
what was happening with women's rights and censorship. I've heard praise by disability advocates for Finlay Currie's portrayal of the character Shunderson, the doctor's right-hand man.

Joseph L  Mankiewicz's choice of Grant for the lead role was called inspired, he'd publicly condemned McCarthy-style blacklists. In hindsight, it has been called one of his best performances and the film is said to be one of the director's personal favorites.

"Grant as Dr. Noah Praetorius would traverse the emotional spectrum from being charming and  compassionate to being philosophical and intensely serious. ... For the good of the film and the message that Mankiewicz wanted to convey Grant succeeded in delivering one of his best performances."
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Critical Essays With an Annotated Bibliography and a Filmography
By Cheryl Bray Lower, R. Barton Palmer

Ingrid Bergman had spent the better part of the 1950s out of the country thanks to a scandal brought on by her relationship with Roberto Rossellini. It was an affair which produced three children. Bergman's actions were denounced on the floor of the Senate.

You may remember how over 40 years later, in May of 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle condemned the fictional TV character Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen) and her "poverty of values," saying that by having a child without being married, she was mocking the importance of fathers.




Cary Grant was something of an outsider and he stood by friends when they were pushed outside. He supported Bergman throughout this period.

In 1957 she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her work in Anastasia. She asked Grant to accept the Oscar if she should win and she did just that. In 1958 he returned to be a presenter. This was the year he made The Pride and the Passion with Sophia Loren and Frank Sinatra.

It was rehearsing for the 1958 Oscar ceremony that this famous photo was taken
Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Bob Hope and David Niven
from Life Magazine

Grant would have been suspect to some people because of his personal and professional friendships with people in all different realms. He had friends who were conservative and liberal politically, people who were of different generations and personalities. Like anyone it's impossible to characterize a person's life by a quote here or there.


Father Goose Cary Grant Leslie Caron British Lobby Card



He along with friends such as Hitchcock were some of the first to hire and work with blacklisted artists. After a dozen years undercover, Frank Tarloff decided to risk using his real name in the credits of Father Goose, Cary Grant's 1964 film.

Tarloff would co-write it with SH Barnett and Peter Stone. They won the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay written directly for the screen. With the Oscar win, Tarloff was able to end his exile, return to Hollywood and return to work.

"By 1965 Grant had never won an Academy Award. That year, accepting the Oscar for co-writing a Grant vehicle called Father Goose, Peter Stone was perfectly succinct:
'My thanks to Cary Grant,' he said, ‘who keeps winning these things for other people.'"

Peter Bogdonavich, The Saturday Evening Post
- March 1978


Cary Grant retired from film making in 1966. His last movie was Walk, Don't Run with Samantha Eggar and Jim Hutton.



Grant repeated an analogy often in discussions, speeches and interviews. I remember Joan Crawford (who did win one) on a talk show, Mike Douglas?, saying how very important the Oscar is to actors. Here's Cary Grant's analogy from an interview with Gene Siskel in early 1976.

"'Chaplin is waiting a long time at a trolley car stop. He`s the first in line of what turns out to be a huge crowd. The trolley finally arrives, he`s the first one on, but then the crowd behind him surges through the door and pushes him right through the door on the other side.

"'And that's a lot like what Hollywood is like,' Grant said. 'When you're a young man, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. is driving. Wally Berry is the conductor, and Chaplin's got a front row seat. You take your seat, and back behind you is Gary Cooper. He has got his long feet stuck out in front of one of the exit doors, and people keep tripping over him and onto the street.

"'Suddenly a young man named Ty Power gets on. He asks you to move over. You make a picture with Joan Fontaine. You think you do a good job, but she wins the Oscar, and you get nothing.

"'And pretty soon more and more people get on, it's getting very crowded, and then you decide to get off.'
"Told that there would always be a place for Cary Grant on the trolley car, he gave an instantaneous response:

"'I forgot to tell you. When you get off the trolley, you notice that it's been doing nothing but going around in circles. It doesn't go anywhere. You see the same things over and over. So you might as well get off.'"
-- The Real Cary Grant A Revealing Weekend With Archibald Leach Chicago Tribune
By Gene Siskel, January 1976 and reprinted early December 1986

The 42nd Academy Awards would be presented April 7, 1970. It was announced that he was to be honored with a lifetime achievement honorary Oscar. Still some members were against this decision and his rejoining the Academy helped to smooth some ruffled feathers. The award meant a lot to Mr. Grant. He was happy to get it and thrilled that he received standing ovations.

The timing was difficult as that spring found him dealing with a much publicized paternity suit. The young lady, who had and would give many interviews about the situation, had threatened to hold a press conference outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on the night of the Oscars. Grace Kelly was supposed to present him with the award and he asked her not to do it so she wouldn't be at all involved in his scandal.

Just days before the Oscars he was dealing with the paternity case, keeping an appointment at a courthouse and giving blood samples. Apparently on the day they were to meet in court the mother of the child did not show up and didn't offer her own blood samples. While the case went away, the publicity continued and the fear that she would be at the awards show remained. She never did show up.


Frank Sinatra presents Cary Grant
Academy Awards Oscar Original
5X4 Transparency Negative
Cary Grant's friend Frank Sinatra presented the award. Perhaps since he got the call a little late, Sinatra's presentation is a bit unusual? Fans sometimes question his style, but they say that in a letter Cary Grant wrote later he thanked Sinatra for staying on stage with him for moral support.  A video of his speech is below

All of the extra stress in his life could be seen slightly as you watch him accept the award but it can be said that in his late 60s he did still look good.

"I'm very grateful to the Academy's Board of Directors for this happy tribute,and to thank Frank for coming here especially to give it to me and to all the fellows who worked so hard in finding and assembling those film clips."

He thanked the directors and writers he'd worked with, nodding to those who he saw in the audience such as Alfred Hitchcock.

"You know I've never been a joiner or a member of any -- oh particular - social set, but I've been privileged to be a part of Hollywood's most glorious era.

"And yet tonight thinking of all the empty screens that are waiting to be filled with marvelous image, ideologies, points of view and considering all the students who are studying film techniques in the universities throughout the world and the astonishing young talents that are coming up in our midst, I think there's an even more glorious era right around the corner.

"So before I leave you I want to thank you very much for signifying your approval of this. I shall cherish it until I die, because probably no greater honor can come to any man than the respect of his colleagues. Thank you."




He wrote a letter of thanks to the President of the Academy reinstating his membership and explaining his reason for resigning years ago. "Because of what may have since become outmoded principles, I deplored commercializing a ceremony which, in my estimation, should have remained unpublicized and privately shared among the artists and craftsmen in our industry. I'm not sure at all my beliefs have changed; just the times..."
Cary Grant: A Class Apart by Graham McCann

He would return to present James Stewart and Laurence Olivier with their Honorary Oscars at later Academy Awards events.


"Grant says that he is 'a private person only if you compare me with Joan Crawford. But a person like me is subject to certain indignities. I've had biographies written about me by people I've never met. One was a real hatchet job; I never read the one by Schickel  I heard it was a quality job, and it certainly had a good look to it.'" 
Dallas Morning News - March 20, 1986


Cary Grant: A Celebration by Richard Schickel is a good book. (Richard Schickel, Time movie critic).

 
This article is as good as the resources I was able to find for background information. I've looked through books that were well researched, containing quotes, sources, citations and input from those close to the subject. Some books were just informational, less biographical and those are helpful and interesting.

I found some "biographical" books that seemed to rely more on second and third hand information even if selling themselves on their being well researched.


** Charlie Chaplin would win another Honorary Oscar in 1971 for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century." The following year, he won the only competitive Academy Award of his career, a Best Score award in 1971 for Limelight (shared with Ray Rasch and Larry Russell).

To show how times may have changed, when you go to the Academy Awards web site, you can browse their Margaret Herrick Library. 

The first item shown Special Collections Department is their Alfred Hitchcock papers with classic graphic of the silhouette of Hitchcock and Cary Grant.

If you want to see their Photograph Archive, you'll see a description accompanied by a photo of Cary Grant. The library is meant to represent a history of the motion picture industry, not necessarily the Academy Awards alone from what I gather. That would be a great place to visit.
-- February 2014


Chaplin's Girl: The Life and Loves of Virginia Cherrill

Sources not cited above:

Evenings With Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and by Those Who Knew Him Best. by Nancy Nelson. Forward by Barbara and Jennifer Grant.

Better Left Unsaid: Victorian Novels, Hays Code Films, and the Benefits of Censorship (The Cultural Lives of Law)

Cary Grant in Name Only

Ingrid Bergman My Story

Films inducted yearly onto The National Film Registry

Cary Grant and Ralph Bellamy would turn 110 in 2014

Cary Grant becomes US Citizen June 1942, marries Barbara Hutton; Errol Flynn and Peter Lorre become US Citizens

The Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

We found more documentaries, foreign films, more British television shows and
This article is part of
The 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon
many more old color and black and white films on Amazon.  I found more films from Cary Grant's era on Amazon than other streaming media outlets.

Having several of the videos free to watch with Amazon Prime is great. 

Join Amazon Prime - Watch Over 40,000 Movies We chose Amazon Prime because we prefer their wide selection of movies and documentaries to other streaming video sites, and the yearly price is about the same. But you get added benefits to joining Amazon Prime. 

There are always movies you want to pay to rent or own. There seems to still be some special films we want to own on DVD.

The woman who charged Cary Grant in the paternity suit has since died according to a news report.

My other articles in the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon: 

Great Early Best Original Song Oscar Winners pre-1960, 2014 news

Hume Cronyn: 6 Favorite Film Roles Lifeboat - Cocoon
 



Mel Brooks talks about meeting Cary Grant


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